of protecting image i could find in nature?" and i thought about a pine tree sheltering a little bird from a snowstorm. i went to places vocally and emotionally and musically that i was definitely not necessarily comfortable with but i needed to stretch to. ♪ working with keefus green was amazing. he has a way of making these musical soundscapes... ♪ that are just spectacular, and you have no idea what they are, but they just sound magical, and jon brion, he's this, like, willy wonka of music, basically. you know, i've idolized him for such a long time, and he would just come in and play the pump organ or play the guitar, play some keyboards, and then sort of wander out. ♪

>> "inside washington" is brought to by the american federation of government employees. for more information more informationafge.org. >> production assistance provided by albritton communications and politico. >> the senate will come to order. >> the house will be in order. >> a new congress and a new day in washington. what's the first up in this

debate is for democrats to get over their fanatical commitment regarding every single guy -- dime. >> i will not have another debate with congress that they should not pay the bills that they have racked up. >> house speaker jon boehner hangs onto his job but taking a beating. clutch a minute. shame on congress. >> the fiscal cliff deal gets in a little bit too but everyone. secretary of state and i clinton recovering from a major health scare and a preview of the president's new cabinet. forget the politicians. invite this young man. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

>> happy new year. the good news is we did not go over the fiscal cliff, not quite, not without controversy. as we approach the end of the year, the speaker of the house confront the the majority leader and urged them to perform an anatomically improbable act upon himself. this is what passes for frugality in our nation's capital. of course, they got the work done, but it displeased republicans looking for spending cuts, not tax hikes. >> i think it was a lousy deal. it raise taxes about $620 million and it will hurt the economy and kill jobs. >> this is just one step in the broader effort to broader opportunity for everyone. >> president obama and the new republican senator from texas,

ted cruz. contrary to what you have heard, we did not face up to an economic crisis. all they did was go through another political crisis. but try to pick the winners and losers of the deal. how about the taxpayers. how do they fair? >> rich people who make more than $400,000 will pay more. i suppose the middle class will be somewhat on touched but because of the payroll holiday expiring, middle-class people will be paying more money to. everyone lost and that's the truth. you do this and this goes on with increasing intensity and everyone loses in the end. >> winners and losers?

>> the real problem is we have this exploding debt and we are adding $1 trillion per year and it is completely unprecedented. there's no change in sight. this is the debt ceiling debate of july and august 2011 which was supposed to come to grips with spending and our debt. it was punted off until this january. what came out was another probably as a result of the next one. we will come out with everything deferred. we are not facing the problem. ultimately, it will destroy our economy. >> i disagree with both nina and charles. it was postponed. it was avoided. that's a good thing. yes, the candid get kicked down the road.

they had to because of the sequestration that will be taking place. what was achieved is that the president the achieved his goal of increasing the tax rate on the wealthy. that was important. the loser clearly being speaker boehner. yet a bad beginning of the year. >> the voters send them across the washingtons and make sure that they get every benefit that the government has available to them. they some republicans to washington to make sure that they will not have to pay. both parties keeping promises. they will much such a single gray hair on that beautiful hair of social security or medicare.

dog or a. wieters locked in the bush tax cuts which democrats, as a matter of faith and principal, argued against for 10 years and you just made them, except for the top 1.5%, the law of the land in perpetuity. >> perpetuity until the next congress. >> they said permanently and i do not see any republican voting to increase. >> mitch mcconnell out of desperation calling in joe biden to get this done. when i first came to washington, that is how things got going. this is a good thing, isn't it? >> it was at a critical point when he was able to step in and focused help broker a deal. that is politics in washington. you do not have that kind of political behavior taking place

in the house of representatives. there's something really fractured in the house with republicans in the way that they deal with their own leadership. it is not unprecedented. >> with this debt ceiling hanging over us, isn't it time to start rebuilding relationships, nina? >> there are some people who actually know how to do that left? it is not insignificant that these were older members of the senate who actually -- joe biden being a senator for a long time, they got together and they were able to hammer something out. a different kind of pork, tax benefits. it's ugly. it's sausage. in my view, there are a lot of

things in this that are unfortunate from a policy point of view. that is we do to make a deal and then everyone just has to get by it. the only way is to have everyone say that we're all going to stick by what we have done. >> barack obama's approaches that of ronald reagan. he does not get into specifics or bring in everyone in the room. that is not his style. joe biden fill that in. he was an independent for 36 years. he served with mitch mcconnell. it had broken down obviously between the president and the speaker of the house and the speaker could not deliver the republican membership. it was by a default. but for them, there was not a deal. >> reelected president to is

committed to a certain strengthening of the entitlement state. he wanted health care to be universal. he has this idea that his job, his mission is to fix the increasing inequality in the country. i do not think he has any interest in cutting entitlements because he thinks it will hurt the ordinary american. you have a republican party committed to attacking the debt and that is why you have a stalemate. apart from the personal, petty stuff, that is the major issue why we are stock. as mark indicated, they elect a republican house, and that is why everything is in a stalemate. >> look at the new congress and house speaker john boehner's problem. >> for those of you who are returning to have what these aisles before, maybe it is time

we get a little awestruck. put simply, we're center not to be something but to do something. >> not to be something but to do something. that's a great idea. were they listening? house speaker john boehner reelected with 220 votes out of 426. pelosi got 192. he has been taking a wicked beating from republicans. we showed chris christie yelling at him that was because of the vote on reliefer hurricane sandy. he is taking a beating. >> because he's trying to do something. he tried to do something in december with his plan b and his party walked on him.

he then abdicated his responsibility and lifted up to the senate to act. the senate gave him a proposal and it turned out of his caucus would not support him on doing something about that either. that he has just tried. as part -- his party will not let him. >> he is a deal maker. >> paul krugman tells me that i live in a centrist fantasy, but it is a fantasy i would like to see actually happened. >> what lies ahead for speaker boehner docks >> it is a tricky, treacherous path. they did some rip. today on the house floor just to

make sure some of those republicans stay with the speaker. he had to hundred 17 republicans. no democrats voted for him. they barely eked out. i am paraphrasing but he said the difference between the boys down the men in politics is that the boy is run for higher office to be something. i agree that he is a product directed legislate tour. in this atmosphere, that is not a cherished title. >> he does not have a good stick to punish people. he took committee jobs away from three of them. >> they have been in a weak position since election day. as gingrich learned in the early govern the cannot

united states from one house of the congress and that is something that i think the newcomen enthusiastic, young, committed members of his congress do not understand. they only control one house of congress. you can stop them blocked, which is, i think something that you're conservative you'd want to do to prevent some of the more expansive liberal legislation from happening. the problem they have now with the debt ceiling is this is again playing roulette. what they have to do is they have to have a caucus united on a simple demand. whatever it is, $1 in spending cuts for every $1 in debt increases, a balanced budget amendment, but something. they also made a tactical throw back. if they do not, they will get

rolled. advice is' thoughtful, but when asked if they would expect -- accept $10 for $1, everyone said it was unacceptable. we are in a position where we'd like to take tough positions but we do not like to make tough calls. >> i think we will see something inherently different. i think the president is serious when he says he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling. he should not. this is something that is artificial. >> will the new congress make a difference? more women, more latinos, gays and lesbians. will the makeup of congress make a difference? >> if anything, congress is more

polarized because of redistricting. this is part of the problem. >> you do not see a ted cruz of texas and elizabeth warren coming to terms over legislation? >> i doubt it. there's another thing here that i just want to mention. the president says he will not negotiate a bar raising the debt ceiling. that is paying the bills we have already incurred a, not setting a new standard. he has to negotiate, but he also has the possibility, instead of just letting us rolling the dice as simply saying he's going to break it. if he does that, there will be a court case, but that will take time.

>> they want to jeopardize the full faith and credit of the united states by refusing to raise the debt limit, they will pay the consequences. >> you may want to refer to an impassioned speech obama gave in 2006 against raising the debt ceiling in the senate and the explain why we were robbing the future of the country. >> all the presidents have -- >> allowing the debt ceiling to rise automatically. >> let's go back toe for sandy. why did he leave that? he opened himself up to scathing criticism. >> i do not understand it. eric cantor assured them they would get a vote and it would pass the senate. it was predictable that this

would blow up and he walked away from it. you would think you would have the votes are you would not bring it to the floor. here is a very skilled politician, but the lack of support from his own caucus is shocking. >> if he had tried to reach him four times that night, he could not reach him before the vote got overturned. reports suggest that he was up said with having that the feeder earlier in the day and he did not want to have the call for spending the same night and have the house take a position on it.

wood is hard to follow is what to do about his own leadership in being affected by his own decision. >> it tends to be a little incendiary. he was so mad. >> peter king, chairman of the homeland security committee, is not a soft-spoken, i am assuming. he went on every available camera and microphone and said anyone in new york and new jersey gives a -- who gives a nickel is crazy. he and chris christie together have applied enough public pressure to john boehner and the house republican caucus. it does require a suspension votes and you have to get two- thirds. that's a problem. >> keying has backed off now.

>> the boat has been promised -- king has backed off. >> this is all very interesting, but has anyone looked into the $60 billion? it is called sandy release. there is so much pork in there that has nothing to do with helping the people's suffering that is a crime against the treasury. $9 billion is for immediate relief, but that is in the past. $50 billion of this, i will give you one example. amtrak had some damage. it is about $32 billion. the bill has $300 million for operating expenses because they operate at a loss. there's so much junk in this. $500 million to nooa.

>> what is noa? >> national oceanic and atmospheric -- they predict storms. >> this does not address the fundamental problem that sandy created. >> we have a system in which du burns $60 billion in one hour -- in which you burn $60 billion, twice the budget of the state of new jersey. >> noaa already exists and they have done an excellent job in predicting sandy. >> now they need more. >> more for noaa. >> deliberate over the way you deliberate --

>> we have to take a break and then we will look at what lies ahead for the president's cabinet. but secretary of state hillary clinton is back home after treatment for a blood clot in her head. this followed reports that she had suffered a concussion after fainting. it looked like the president will nominate senator john kerry to fill her shoes when she steps down. timothy geithner is also reportedly planning to leave. also, chuck hagel for the defense secretary but the blood letting their of already begun. why do the republicans dislike him? he's a republican. >> he is in the lrepublican party the way lieberman stands with the democrats. he was never popular in his own

party. he came out very strongly against nominating him because of anti-gay sentiments in the past. the apologized but it was not accepted by frank and others. he voted against sections against iran. he appears to be ready to make huge cuts in spending in defense and alike, for example, leon panetta, who argued against sequestration cuts saying it would hollow out the military. you get the sense from panetta that he would resign in principle if the sequestration went into effect. there's a lot of argument against him on the left and right. >> a former combat veteran of vietnam going to the pentagon.

>> someone who has seen combat, spilled blood of enemies in combat. it would be great for so many of the hawks to develop their think tanks. he is demanded independence of conscience. he has been a very loyal republican. the pointy criticized was president bush on the iraq war -- >> after voting for it. >> and after suggesting richard perle may want to lead the first combat and to baghdad. when you see someone like jim jones, brent, of bill: coming out in favor, i think that is good support. >> it is interesting how the

centrist, a moderately conservative foreign policy establishment has rushed to his defense. when people who signed a letter for him was embassador pickering. >> i am getting a lot of unsolicited mail discussing chuck hegel's relationship with israel. i see no evidence of it, but there is a public strain their being discussed. that has to be dealt with. >> i know this is a political show, but i'm not leaving this chair without a word about rg3. >> we've got to win. that's all that matters. when it is on the line, the redskins will step up. >> revenue griffin iii, there are "quarterback, leading the redskins to clinch the nfc

title. a scholar and an athlete on the dean's list at baylor. >> i'm impressed. 97% of notre dame players graduate with a degree, the highest in the nation, higher than stanford or do, and their number one in the polls. rg3, both of his parents are enlisted army career. he is not only will spoken but he has been an exemplar for this community and he is terrific on appeal. >> we could use something like him in government. charles. >> of iran for president right now, he would do rather well. there is no opening for three and a half years. >> i wish the redskins had a few more defenders. every time they have a weakness exposed, my heart sinks that he will be hurt.

>> they were wondering whether or not he would be able to make it. over at espn, my son says he is the real deal. >> maybe we will start now with house speaker ram we will go from there. >> he will have to wait a few years. that is the last word. >> he would be worth it. we will see you next week. >> insidewashington.tv. "inside washington" brought you in part by the american federation of government employees. for more information, visit employees. for more information, visit